“Curtis Hanson believed in me and our crazy idea to make a rap battle movie set in Detroit. He basically made me into an actor for 8 Mile. I’m lucky I got to know him,” Eminem said in a statement to Billboard. (Billboard)

“I knew going into it that he had experience performing and also adopting a character, Slim Shady. What I was looking for was actually the opposite of that. When you adopt a characterization, that’s artificial. You hide behind that. What I needed in this story was the appearance of a complete lack of artifice. I needed the appearance of one more or less exposing himself emotionally.” (Radio)

Curtis Hanson, who won a screenwriting Oscar for “L.A. Confidential” and directed the psychological thriller “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” and Eminem’s tale of Detroit hip-hop “8 Mile,” has died. He was 71. Paramedics declared Hanson dead at his Hollywood Hills home late Tuesday afternoon, Los Angeles police spokesman Tony Im said. Hanson died of natural causes, Im said, but he did not have further details. (NBC News)